I've posted here a few times maybe a month or so ago. Sometimes I just read posts and feel encouraged about what everyone says and knowing that I am not alone in how I feel. Sometimes I feel bad liking that I am not alone. I hate that others out there feel like me

I am the wife of a survivor. Sometimes it's hard bearing so much emotional weight. Having to be strong for your family all the time and standing by someone who keeps hurting you. It can be exhausting. And so I come here and feel better, if but for a brief part of my day.

Sometimes I try to tell my husband how I am affected by him and hurt (lack of intimacy, feeling like I can't talk to anyone, feeling like I am missing out on a "normal" marriage, worrying that my son won't have the father he needs).

I want to be able to talk to him about how I am hurt. Is this something I shouldn't do until he is further along in the healing process? When I try to talk to him about my feelings, he says things like "you don't know what hurt is." Not having been abused, he's right. My emotional issues seem to not be able to compare. But I know that I am human and I have my own hurts. But I want him to hear and understand how things affect me. My thought for wanting that is maybe if he knows how things are negatively affecting my wellbeing, maybe it will cause him to start to want to change. He just doesn't seem like he can handle his crap as well as my own right now. Maybe this is just the part where I need to be strong and just deal right now.

To support you, he doesn't need to take on your crap. He may have difficulty handling it, but that doesn't mean you should stuff your feelings.. With that said, you need a healthy outlet for your feelings, so getting your own therapist or going to a group meeting weekly (like alanon or coda - even if he isn't or wasn't an alcoholic, I'm told alanon is still a great support). We need to learn to heal ourselves and we need to learn to set boundaries to protect ourselves from further hurt. Emotional hurt is no a competition... his does not trump yours! Is your H going to therapy himself, because if he isn't, then the hurt he feels and inflicts of those he loves around him will continue. For me, it took a long time to realise the difference between telling my husband he "should" get therapy and setting the boundary that I could no longer tolerate his behaviour while he did nothing to help himself. I have no doubt he will stumble along the way to recovery, but as long as he continues to work towards recovery, then I will stand beside him as his wife. What I came to realise is that I could not stand by and watch him sabotage everything he achieved time and time again (not to mention the acting out, complete blindness to anyone else's needs and anger outbursts at the slightest comment that he perceived as an attack). This was not a relationship or a marriage. I was his caretaker, his metaphorical punching bag and his therapist, but had long ago ceased to be his wife, friend and lover. As damaged as he is/was, only he has the power to heal himself. It is OK to ask for more. In fact, if we don't we settle and I certainly wouldn't want to know anyone had "settled" for me.

His petulant remarks when you express your hurt is his child coming out. Calmly demand to be married to an adult. It will not happen over night, but it will NEVER happen unless you ask for it.

Be well.

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I am not your rolling wheels, I am the highwayI am not your carpet ride, I am the sky- Audioslave

I haven't been to a therapist about this yet. Neither has he. I am close to going and am willing to. He however thinks he doesn't need one and that therapy won't help. So I feel resentment--like why should I take time out of my busy day to see a therapist about issues he caused me to have when he won't go himself!! I think he's at the beginning stages of everything--he's still just remembering things that happened.

Sometimes I feel like I'm just a caretaker too. He hasn't slept in the same bed as me for a very long time. He tells me I'm the one person he can trust with this secret of his. I'm the one person he feels safest around. Yet he can't sleep with me. I just want him next to me--not even sex. It's hard accepting that only he can heal himself sometimes (although I know thats true). I wish I could fix him. So many of my thoughts are about him. I know this is codependency stuff. But how I wish so much for him to wake up and realize what he needs to do to be better. Or if I'm wishing for things, I guess I just wish to wake up and this have all just been a bad nightmare.

I know this won't go away but I want to get to the point where we are okay. Where I feel him trying at least. No doubt that he will stumble along the way. But if I could just feel him trying...

I am the wife of a survivor, going through the same thing you are. I too have been having issues keeping it all together.. I will tell you, we are getting passed the no sex stuff, but it is still a very long battle. I told h just today that I'm tired of being his babysitter, I feel like the exact same you do.. I am running into having no support system right now either, I may not be much help but I would be here to listen to ya. I know how good it feels to be able to just talk about it. Feel free to send me a personal message.. God bless Hun!

I am the girl friend of a survivor. I have no magic answers because I could have written your post myself. The only upside is that mine sees he needs help but I think is afraid to go since I do not know if I can . I want him to get help and want to be there for him. I do know I can't tolerate anymore deceit. Many thoughts for you. I hope you can both the the help you need.

"I want to be able to talk to him about how I am hurt. Is this something I shouldn't do until he is further along in the healing process? When I try to talk to him about my feelings, he says things like "you don't know what hurt is." Not having been abused, he's right. My emotional issues seem to not be able to compare. But I know that I am human and I have my own hurts"

Something that I have learned about hurt is that it is all relative to what you experience. It doesn't do us any good as humans to compare our pain and decide who's is the worst. Because the truth is no matter where a persons pain come from death, war, abuse, neglect, whatever at it's core it is the same pain. I have had friends tell me of their struggles and then offer a disclaimer of how they know that their pain is nothing compared to what I went through. That's a bunch of BS. And I could look at the children in Africa who are forced to rape their mothers and murder their parents and them become soldiers against their will and say. My pain is nothing compared to what they go through. I believe that this kind of thinking doesn't help anyone, and it doesn't heal anyone. I think that your pain in every way is just valid as his.That being said it sounds like he may be so overwhelmed by his own pain that hearing about yours is just too much to handle.(right now at least) I know it is next to impossible to not take this personally but try not to. I'm in the same boat right now with my H.I think that the most powerful thing that we can do as partners to help encourage our men to heal is to heal ourselves. Positive actions are very contagious. And I know I have said this before but it is so true that when we let our lights shine we give others permission to do the same. I'm currently realizing that I have a lot more baggage then I wanted to realize and dealing with it makes me feel empowered. I am half of this marriage and taking care of and growing my half gives me the sense of usefulness and power in the relationship that for years I felt I didn't have. Its a slow process but as I grow I see H growing to, it's hard and painful right now but I know that we are both working towards the common goal of happiness together. Even though we don't talk about anything like that yet I still see it. I would encourage you to go to therapy you have nothing to lose and everything to gain by taking steps to love and heal yourself. I want to validate you pain as real. And your struggle as long, exhausting, and scary. Peace be with you

HD, your words really helped me. I am going to try to do positive actions and take care of myself. Thank you.

It's just so hard on those days when I really need to talk and want HIM to listen and he can't. It's lonely. The worst part is when I'm thinking and feel sad because I'm comparing my life to how it's "supposed to be." We had a plan and this was not it. It's also hard when I go out with friends and see them with their husbands and their husbands steal a kiss or touch them in the simplest way. I fight back tears whenever I see it. It used to be that way for us.

Rachel, I completely connect with what you are saying. I have a post here called "Things that keep me up at night" where I talk of my sadness (ok, self-pity) over what my marriage will likely never be, BUT, I am seeing it will be a whole lot more than it is now if I keep asking for it. You talked of resentment about getting your own therapy when he won't. I understand where this comes from, but hear this... You going to therapy has nothing to do with him. It is all and only for you. It's purpose is not to help you be "stronger" so you can carry more of his emotional load. Therapy will help you to detach from his emotional load and set boundaries that care for and protect your emotional well being. When you have done this, if you choose to, you will INCIDENTALLY be a better support to your H as well, but not because you will be carrying him, but because you will be standing separate, encouraging him and challenging him without being crushed under the weight of trying to heal him. Either way, you move forward and that is good. You deserve it... hell we all do!

I have a child with Aspergers, and I remember for some months after him being diagnosed and given the prognosis, I felt profoundly sad and felt cheated. I know that sounds selfish... but I had lost that feeling a mother has when she holds her healthy baby for the first time, that her child will and can be ANYTHING. I felt his diagnosis put a ceiling on this. It's been three years since his diagnosis and I see how foolish I was... Not because he can be "anything", but because we all have strengths and weaknesses and life is about acknowledging and embracing our weaknesses and learning to overcome and flourish in new ways we didn't know existed. We can't predict anything in life. My marriage, my life and my children did not turn out at all like I had envisioned, but while there are difficulties I hadn't expected, there are more wonderful aspect I hadn't expected as well. I know it is very, very difficult to see the light and beauty in yourself, in your H and in your life together, but it is there.

Someone wrote (and I think it was HD) that in each of us is a wolf of darkness and one of divine light and they are in constant battle, The wolf that wins is the one we feed. This story touched me because it is a perfect metaphor for something so very true! I try to remind myself to feed the right one all the time and it helps to allow me to embrace the moment and find the beauty.

Sadness is good (even if it feels bad), because we are feeling and processing, but resentment and guilt (which I also seesaw back and forth between at times) don't help me to improve my life at all. They keep me stuck in the place that I don't want to be in.

Forgive yourself for not being able to fix him and forgive him for not yet having the courage to face his recovery so he can be a more complete husband and father. Forgiveness does not mean you give up your need to be married to a man that wants these thing for himself too, but it allows you to let go of resentment.

I really hope you choose to help yourself and maybe you will end up being a model for your H to do the same.

And when it feels hopeless and dark, come here and listen and be listened to. We have all felt what you feel is some form or another. We will honour your pain, process and listen to you.

Be well.

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I am not your rolling wheels, I am the highwayI am not your carpet ride, I am the sky- Audioslave

You have every right to expect your marriage to be everything you want/need it to be. Your husband is in a marriage, for goodness sake. That means that he has to be a MAN, not a child.

None of us has cornered the market on pain. It's not a competition, and we don't get anything if we "win." You have the RIGHT to your feelings. Period. They're real. And your needs are real. That's a reality that, as survivors, I'm convinced that we HAVE TO EMBRACE. My job, in my marriage, is to make sure the experience is a positive one for my wife. If our marriage doesn't work, it won't be because of fate or anything. It'll be because it didn't do for us what we need it to do.

So... yeah. HD is absolutely right.

And for God's sake! Get therapy! What are you waiting for? If it's money, I'm so sorry. But believe me, it's worth it. I'm paying off my therapy bills and will for a long time, A LONG TIME! But I can promise you that it's money well spent.

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